iLove my Queen of Mystery.

Who is my Queen of Mystery, my QoM?


No, not Mary Higgins Clark (I've not read her in spite of recommendations)


I'm talking about Agatha Christie, who is on my list of favourite authors.

If you've not read any of her books then I demand that you go out and buy or borrow a copy of her novel And Then There Were None!! That was the first of Christie's that I ever read and inevitably the beginning of my addiction. Her writing style is neither complicated nor overly simple and leaves lots of visualisation space for the reader's imagination. However, I am admittedly biased to the ones involving that impeccable Bulgarian detective-- Hercule Poirot.

He's such a funny character: neurotically neat, proud of his moustache, obsessed with those grey cells and fond of sweet things. Some readers may find his ego a turn-off; personally, I think it's interesting to see him justify his bravado. It's one of the things that compels me to read on. Sometimes I just hope he'll get it completely wrong. Plus... well, how many of us have tried to solve a mystery before someone in the novel did?

Anyways...

I recently read "Hercule Poirot's Christmas". Agatha Christie wrote this book for her brother-in-law, who had once remarked that her books were not bloody enough. Hence, she wrote this crime in such a way that the detectives could be certain it was a homocide and not a suicide or natural death (as such is the case of falling off a cliff or undetectable poisons). That is to say... the victim is found with a slit throat and lying in a pool of blood.


Mmmm. Good old-fashioned murder.


This one goes on my list (iLove lists) of QoM favourites. It has all of my favourite factors (You may not want to know what these factors are-- especially if you haven't read the book and are planning to). Apparent violence, a locked room situation, a dinner party of sorts, a dashing unexpected guest, complicated family bloodlines and Hercule Poirot. Like in most of her books, Christie manages to make a psychological display of her characters by using Monsiuer Poirot and the readers' suspicious little minds as her tools.

I think I've dragged on for long enough. Hopefully this entry has not discouraged you from reading any of the QoM's novels!



Write you later. Go read something.


-The illiterate Blogger-